Engagement Story – Text Version

Note: The following is a transcript of a forty minute session Annie and I had recording our engagement story. I will be posting the audio later today, but it will only be for family and friends, as it mentions many names, and people don’t feel comfortable with their names out on the Internet and I don’t have permission to post them. I have edited the names, so if you see a single capital letter other than the letter “I”, it is probably in reference to someone.

David: I had received the ring not too long beforehand and I really wanted to make a big deal of it after work one evening. I knew our weekend was going to be full and we had just gone mall walking the previous night and I had told Annie that it would be at least another week, maybe more, before I proposed. I did that a little bit to throw her off the trail. When Friday came around I had a bunch of candles…

Annie: Thirty six candles.

David: I had way more candles in the box. I was setting them up everywhere in little groups of three and I made sure I had an even number because Annie likes even numbers.

Annie: Yes, I do.

David: I started lighting some of them and I realized the wicks in the candles were laying flat and so I had to prop them up and make them straight or else they’d drown in their own wax and went out. So I was running around relighting all these candles, using tweezers to get the wick out of the wax to get these candles lit. And I was like, ‘If I set up all the candles that I have this is going to take forever.’ But I still wanted to make a pretty arrangement. I had long had a dream of proposing surrounded in light and I really wanted to try to recreate that the best I could. Even before I had moved here, moved to this apartment, I knew how I wanted things to be set up. Which I think also threw her off the trail a little bit because she knew that I wanted to propose inside and she knew that I knew where I wanted to propose before I moved here so I don’t think she necessarily thought that the apartment I got when I moved here was going to be the place.

Annie: That’s true.

David: I had set up a bunch of the candles in groups of three around my living room area. I set up flower shaped version of it on my living room table…

Annie: Coffee table.

David: Coffee table.

Annie: Thank you.

David: Thank you.

Annie: You’re welcome.

David: And I had lit them all up just after receiving a phone call from her that she was leaving work. I figured these were about three hour candles and at the most she was going to be an hour so we’d have another two hours of really nice candlelight in my apartment for us to enjoy and it would be romantic. I had them all lit up and then, just as a quick final touch I turned on the screensaver on my computer. Well, not a screensaver. I found a video on YouTube of a fireplace. It just seemed to suit the mood really well. This is where Annie came in because she’d called me and let me know that she wasn’t necessarily going to be there right on time.

Annie: I was leaving work a little bit late because I’d had a bit of a rough afternoon and had a little bit of a meltdown with one of my co-workers at my work and I left work kind of crying, just worried about my mom and stuff because my mom had been sick recently. I called David up and I was about twenty minutes late from work at that point and told him that I was late and said, ‘You know what? I’m kinda bummed. I’m going to stop at Tim Horton’s on my way home but what’s the plan for the evening?’ I asked him what the plan for the evening was. He said, ‘You’re going to come here, I’m going to make you dinner, we’ll go visit your mom, take in the home show and that’ll be it. That’ll be our night.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, that sounds good.’ Then went and got my coffee and then I was like, ‘You have to make me happy before I get my coffee because I don’t want to be, I’d like a coffee please. So we started playing a game of how much would you need to be paid in order to do certain things. Like surgeries or tattoos and or singing down Young Street or other things. There’s no money you could pay to make me hurt somebody else but David apparently has a price and it’s a little bit more than the cost of counselling.

David: I said it has to at least…I have to figure out or calculate the cost of counselling for the rest of my life to add on to whatever the final price would be. I didn’t just say that it’d just be the cost of counselling for the rest of my life to hurt somebody. I also want to qualify that I said it had to be a bad person that did a really bad thing.

Annie: That’s true. Anyway, I’m driving home and after a while of this conversation David’s like, ‘Where are you?’ I’m like, ‘Don’t worry. I just forgot to take the right turn. I’m going to be a little bit later because I’m driving on autopilot.’ He’s like, ‘Oh. Okay.’ So a while passes and I finally get myself righted and turned around, heading in the right direction again and get here, get to the apartment. There’s no parking so I have to go around the block a couple of times till a spot opens up and finally I got a spot. And David heard the car engine turn off I guess because you said, ‘Oh, are you here now?’

David: Yeah. We were on the phone at the time and I heard the ding-ding-ding of your car.

Annie: So you knew I was here. You heard the car turning off. I have a hands free set in the car so it’s not like I’m driving holding a phone. It’s a hands free Bluetooth thing. It’s safe to drive. He’s like, ‘Okay so you’re here now.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ I get out of the car and I can’t find my keys so I’m fumbling around because David doesn’t like it when I lock my keys in the car but it turned out they were in my purse. But I wasn’t allowed to lock the door to my car until I found my keys first. So it took me a little while to get upstairs. During this time I’m feeling my after work…

David: Washroom break.

Annie: Washroom break was definitely in order so I get to the apartment and usually I get here and David is sitting at the computer or sitting on the couch or laying in bed and I just kind of walk in and do my thing, stick my stuff on the floor, whatever or hang up my coat maybe. Usually I just plop it wherever and I come in and say “hi”. But this time David met me at the door, which was kind of weird and he was dressed nice. Like a button down shirt, freshly showered, smelling really nice and all I’m thinking about is the bathroom and he starts leading me down the hall by my hand and I’m like, ‘Hold on Dude, I’ve got to poop.’ He’s like, ‘Oh. You better take care of that first.’ He grabbed my coat and everything else. He wasn’t letting me past him. He was taking all my stuff from me and then pushing me towards the bathroom and I’m like, ‘Okay.’ And I do my biz and I come back out and he was still waiting for me in the hallway.

David: I’ve put away all the things that you’ve brought in at that point. I set her coffee down in the kitchen, I hung up her coat, I put her purse down in a nice spot. I made sure everything was dealt with while she was in there. Then I did a once over around the apartment looking around like, ‘Is there anything I can touch up while she’s in there? ‘Thankfully I had my apple pie candle running so no matter what it was going to smell nice in here.

Annie: I came out of the bathroom and he led me down the hallway and gave me a hug and a kiss. Then he led me down the hallway and then I noticed that there are candles lit everywhere. I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness. This is happening now. And the toilet’s still running but whatever.’ And he led me into the living room and sat me down on the couch and said some nice things like…

David: I just told her about how I hadn’t ever intended on finding someone to be with in my life. I’d kind of consigned myself to being a bachelor and I didn’t necessarily see that as a bad thing but there’s definitely that feeling of incompleteness. And when I had met Annie it was just like this giant fire lit, like a sun lit in my heart and in my soul and just woke me up to the life I could have. How much she means to me and how much my time with her has just been absolutely amazing. It’s kind of been a whirlwind but very beneficial to every part of my life. Then I asked her to marry me. I even said her full name which is long. It’s so long.

Annie: Just say it.

David: Anne Elizabeth Isabella T K. It’s a five word name and I got it out without stumbling although I had a little bit of a brain fart between Elizabeth and Isabella because I didn’t want to mess it up. How embarrassing would it be if you mess up your potential fiancée’s name as you’re trying to propose?

Annie: It was great. He actually said it like this: Anne Elizabeth… Isabella T K.

David: But I got it all out.

Annie: Yes, you did, I was very impressed.

David: As soon as I had finished saying that…at this point I don’t have the ring out and I’m not kneeling. I’d never found the whole kneeling thing to be really my style especially in our relationship it would have broke the mood, it would have broke things up and it didn’t feel right and so we’re sitting there and the ring is burning a hole in my pocket and Annie just leaps forward into my arm and gives me this big squishing hug.

Annie: Nearly knocked you off the couch I think.

David: Nearly knocked me off the couch. I’m a little confused because she hasn’t said yes yet but she’s super excited. And she hasn’t even seen the ring. So I stumble and go, ‘But you haven’t even seen the ring yet.’

Annie: I’m like, ‘Oh, I guess I should do that.’ I pull myself off him and I’m waiting and he takes the ring out of his pocket and opens it up and there’s this beautiful, beautiful ring that is so exactly my taste and better than I ever could have asked for. It’s got vines on the side made of yellow gold that actually was my mom’s wedding band that she’d given him before she got sick and I didn’t know that he’d had that gold. I knew that she’d wanted to give it to him but then she got sick really fast and so I didn’t think that there had been time. It’s really pretty. He hands it to me and I take it straight out of the box and I’m holding it in my hands and I’m trying to figure out what do I do with this? What hand do I put it on? What am I doing? And David I guess sees me, just my brain exploding in confusion and he’s like, ‘Here. Let me.’ And he takes it back from me and he puts it on my finger for me.

David: At first it wasn’t fitting very well and I was getting really nervous. I think some sweat was starting to bead on my forehead because we had Annie sized at a ring shop a couple weeks earlier and they told me she was a 6.25. If you know anything about rings you know the standard sizes from 6 to 6.50 so 6.25 is a custom size. I didn’t want to get her a 6.50 and have it fall off and she’ll lose the ring and I didn’t want to do a 6 because I figured it wouldn’t be able to fit. So as the ring’s not fitting on her finger my first thought is, ‘Oh, no. They gave me a 6. They didn’t customize the size.’ My brain is exploding, I’m so nervous, I’m starting to shake. She grabs her hand and just pushes that ring on there and she’s like, ‘It’s going to fit.’ And I’m like, ‘Don’t worry. If it doesn’t fit we’ll get it resized but this is your ring and we’re going to make this work.’ She got it on there but it wasn’t really all the way on there. It was uncomfortably on there.

Annie: It was tight. It was a little tight. I think it was just nerves and stuff; my heart beating so hard in my chest it was causing an excess of blood flow to my fingers. Because it fits perfectly now. It fits really, really well.

David: After she gets the ring on we look at each other and she finally squeaks out the word, ‘Yes.’ Then we go back to hugging and kissing and just really enjoying the moment and all the candles are lit and the little fireplace is on my computer screen and we’re just hugging each other. I can barely explain the moment because in some ways it felt like it passed so quickly. It felt like 30 seconds but I think we were there for a good two or three minutes just hugging and enjoying the moment.

Annie: I hope so.

David: I hope so too. Eventually we’re getting to the point where, you get to that phase where you’re like we’ve been hugging for a while now and staring into each other’s eyes and we probably need to get our evening going because we have a pretty full docket tonight especially now with this proposal. I had prepared to make salmon and asparagus dinner for supper and I was going to do some peaches and cream corn and some other stuff as well. So I go in the kitchen, I’m going to go make supper. ‘Maybe you should tell your family. You should definitely tell Becky, she’s been such a big part of this. It would be awesome for her to know.’

Annie: So he’s like, ‘Call Becky.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So I call Becky and Becky answers the phone. I’m like, ‘Hi, Becky. I’m engaged.’ And she’s like, ‘You can’t do this over the phone.’ I’m like, ‘I can’t do this over the phone?’ She’s like, ‘No, you can’t do this over the phone. You have to do it in person.’ And I’m like ‘Oh.’ I walk into the kitchen and I’m like, ‘David, I can’t do this over the phone.’ He’s like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘I have to do this in person. We have to go. Now.’

David: There I am with the fish already on the burner, the burners are on. The water’s already boiling to get ready to cook the asparagus. The asparagus is still in its package but it’s sealed. She comes in and she tells me this and I’m going, ‘But I’m cooking.’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, but we have to go. We’re going to go now. Get your stuff on.’ I’m like, ‘But I’m cooking.’

Annie: I’m like, ‘Becky’s waiting.’ He’s like, ‘But I’m cooking.’

David: Finally she tells me ‘Turn everything off. We’re going to go and then we’ll come back and we’ll eat.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay.’ I turn off the burner and I cover the fish and I put the asparagus in the fridge and turn off the water so it’s not going to boil anymore and then we start getting our stuff on and realize that we’ve got to blow out the 36 candles.

Annie: At this point I am so giddy I’m beyond making sense and he’s got candles up on, like they’re six feet off the ground on the partition between the living room and the bedroom area. I’m trying to blow them out…It’s more than six feet. It’s seven feet. I’m jumping on the bed and trying to blow out the candles and I’m like, ‘Jump. Pfft. Jump. Pfft.’ He’s like, ‘They’re not blowing out.’ And I’m like, ‘No, they’re not and I’m getting light headed.’ He’s like ‘Let me blow them out’ and I’m like ‘Okay’. Then I wandered around and blew out the rest of the candles and starting counting them. I’m like, ‘There’s 35.’ He’s like, ‘No. There’s 36.’ I’m like, ‘There’s 35.’ He’s like, ‘No. There’s 36. I counted many times.’ I counted again and sure enough there were 36 because it’s an even number and I like even numbers.

David: We gear up and we head over to Becky’s place.

Annie: But we get in the car first and David doesn’t have his license so I have to drive.

David: Oh, yes, oh, yes.

Annie: We get in the car and I go to back out so that I can get out of my parallel parked spot and I’m leaning over looking out the back of the car. David says, as the car starts creeping forward, ‘It’s in drive, it’s in drive. Annie, it’s in drive.’ I’m like, ‘Oh. Okay.’ I put it in reverse to get myself out of the spot and David’s like, ‘Even though I don’t have my license I really wish I was driving right now.’ I’m like, ‘Me too. Weeee.’

David: And she really did do the ‘weeee’ part. That’s not something she’s adding for effect. That’s exactly what she said to me and my eyes almost popped out of my head as she basically gunned it down the Main Street of Georgetown before taking some turns to head us to Becky’s place. To say that she was a little eager is an understatement. She was positively floating. She almost lifted the car off the ground she just had that much energy going at that point.

Annie: I think I’d already taken a few piggy back rides from you too at that point. So we get to Becky’s house and she greets us right at the door and we go in and tell her our story thus far. She’s all excited for us and we talk for a little bit and she takes some pictures of the ring and she’s asking questions about the ring and we’re having this really great bonding moment and she says, ‘You know guys, I know that this is your big day and you probably have a lot of people who want to be involved and I totally understand that but I expect to be a bridesmaid. So is there something you want to ask me? Ask me. Ask me. Ask me.’ I’m like, ‘Becky, do you want to be a bridesmaid?’ She’s like, ‘Of course I do. Get ready for bridesmaidzilla.’ I’m like…

David: She was really happy.

Annie: She was really happy and she’s just being silly about the bridesmaidzilla thing. I hope. N started calling you ‘Uncle David’ without any prompting which was pretty awesome. Then we got back in the car.

David: And we came here to eat so I actually did get to cook the dinner although it was a little abridged. We didn’t have the corn or any of the other things; we just had the asparagus and the fish.

Annie: And I had mushrooms.

David: And you had some mushrooms. We didn’t relight the candles so we just ate it. We were going to watch some Star Trek Voyager I think. I think we actually did start an episode.

Annie: We started the episode. I don’t remember anything about it.

David: We’re eating and watching Star Trek as newly engaged people. We finish our meal and realize, ‘Well, we’re probably not going to be able to finish this episode if we want to visit your mom, go to the home show.’ We stop the episode and we take our plates, put them in the kitchen, gear up again to leave.

Annie: Then we went to the hospital and we saw my mom. She had been really low that day and really having out-of-this-world experiences. She’d seen my dad with her during the day and my grandmother and grandfather and a bunch of people who have been dead for many, many years. We go in and we say, ‘Hey mom. We’re engaged. David asked me to marry him.’ And she actually responded appropriately. Who is messaging you during this? This is not fair.

David: That’s not me. That’s M.

Annie: Oh. close down my thing. Anyway, I lost my train of thought, I lost it.

David: We go there and she’s been seeing these people all day and you tell your mom.

Annie: She’s like, ‘Oh, I’m so happy for you guys.’ She responds appropriately which is awesome. Then she’s like, ‘Did you hear that Ron?’ and she looks over her shoulder where I guess she had seen my dad and my grandmother and my grandfather so it was kind of nice the idea that she got to share that joy with them. I wanted to show her the ring but so she doesn’t have very good eyesight so she wasn’t able to see it too well. We continued to talk about it and she asked David if he was able to get the ring made with her gold. He said, ‘Yes.’ Then she held my hand right as we were about to leave and she goes, ‘Oh. That feels weird.’ And I’m like, ‘That’s my engagement ring.’ Then I took it off my hand for the first time and I put it in her hand. And one hand’s holding the ring, the other hand is twirling around like it’s about to hit the ring out of her hand. I’m like, ‘Let me take that back now.’ So I did. I took it back and I put it on my hand and then we thanked my mommy and went on our merry way. We went to the home show.

David: So we looked around the home show and we were having a good time and there was a fair number of booths actually for a town of this size. It wasn’t anything crazy but it was still nice to go. I think the best part though is when we stumbled upon a booth from the lady who gave us the free passes to go.

Annie: I see G there. She’s the lady that gave us the tickets. I was like, ‘Oh, no. I don’t want her to know I’m engaged before anybody else in my family.’ So I took the bag that I had of all the free stuff and I wrapped it around my hand so that you couldn’t see my ring anymore. And then I had to fill out a ballot for her and I had to write it one-handed because I kept the other hand at my side so I didn’t show the ring. I felt really awkward but I also didn’t want her to know before my family. Then we left there and we went over to T and V’s house.

David: When we got there T and V weren’t there unfortunately. Strangely enough the house was empty except for one person.

Annie: Little J. She was the only one home. And I was like, ‘Oh, J. Are your mom and dad going to be home any time soon?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m like, ‘All right. Well, I’d like to introduce you to my fiancé.’ Her face falls off. Her mouth flies wide open, her eyes are just bugging out of her head. She doesn’t say anything she just stares at us both for a really long time and then she’s giving us hugs and as she’s hugging David she’s like, ‘Congratulations,’ in this teeny tiny little voice. I say ‘little J’ but she’s in grade seven so really she’s not little anymore.

David: That was the only other word she said after we told her our news. She was so excited at one point she had to wipe drool off of her face because I think she even forgot to swallow. It was really cute.

Annie: It was really cute. And then as we’re leaving I’m like, ‘J. Don’t tell anybody, okay, because you know before your parents so you’ve got to keep it quiet.’ She doesn’t say ‘okay’ she just nods at me emphatically. We get in the car and we call C because that’s where T and V are and then we drove over to C’s house.

David: When we got there V met us at the door. It was funny. I think she could already tell what the news was going to be.

Annie: I think so.

David: So we showed her and we were giving out hugs and she gave me one and said…

Annie: ‘Took you long enough.’ She yelled it. And at that point N who was upstairs heard her mom yell that and she immediately knew what was going on. We went into the dining room where everybody was working on a puzzle. T was more mellow than V and he shook our hands. I think he might have given me a hug, and congratulations. Everybody saw the ring and they were like, ‘Ooo. That’s so pretty.’

David: I’m standing there and we have this quiet moment and you hear this thump, thump, bump, bump and TA runs down the stairs. She cuts across the living room and yanks Annie’s arm and almost rips her arm off pulling her from the dining room into the living room to see the ring.

Annie: That was funny. She’s like, ‘I knew as soon as my mom said that that you guys had gotten engaged and so I had to come downstairs. Awesome.’ At that point we had told T and V and C, who’s V’s mom, and now N. J also knew at the other house. We were like, ‘Okay. We’ve got at least one more house to get to.’ We wanted to get to talk to M and B that night and also to talk to E that night. So we’re like, ‘Okay guys. Sorry to make this such a quick visit but we have to go over to M and B’s now.’ We took off to go and go back in the car…

David: And we got to M and B’s place and we came in and they didn’t know the news was coming. Going to C’s was something that we don’t really do all that often. To make a special trip to go see T and V at C’s was already something out of the ordinary. Heading over to M and B’s was not something out of the ordinary. When we got there B was working away in his office, we went in and Annie said her little thing, ‘I would like to introduce you to my fiancé.’

Annie: No I didn’t. First…

David: No?

Annie: No. I didn’t.

David: All right. Who did you say…But you did say it to someone there, right?

Annie: Yeah, I said it to Vavoo but to B all I did was hold out my hand and I was grinning. I’m like, ‘Ahhh…’ He’s like, ‘Ooo.’ Then he started to cry. I don’t think any words were said for a fair amount of time. Did he say it to you or to me? I don’t remember now. He said, ‘This family needed some good news.’

David: Yes. He did say that. It was kind of both of us. I don’t think he said that to one of us specifically.

Annie: I thought he said it as he was hugging one of us. I don’t remember now though.

David: He was hugging me.

Annie: And then Vavoo came in and then I said to Vavoo with a straight face, ‘Vavoo. I’d like to introduce you to my fiancé.’ And he looks at David. What did he say to you?

David: ‘That’s a good man,’ I think or something like that. I don’t think he understood though what you had said. You’d said it even louder the second time.

Annie: Then M came into the room and I thought for sure M had overheard me hollering at Vavoo: ‘this is my fiancé. We’re engaged. But M comes in and she has absolutely no clue. She’d just got off the phone with Becky and Becky hadn’t spilled the beans. Surprisingly. So we got to tell M and M was happy and M just immediately started crying because leaky faces…

David: Run in the family.

Annie: Yeah. Then we all sat in the kitchen and we talked about it. Jn came into the room and we told Jn. He’s like, ‘Yay. I don’t have to call you Uncle David for much longer.’ To David. Then B called downstairs for Jh. Jh came upstairs.

David: He heard the news and said congratulations to me and gave me a little man hug. Then he went around behind me over to where Annie was.

Annie: He tried to give me a high five.

David: He offered you a high five. That’s what I thought.

Annie: I took the high five. I totally high fived him and then I stood up and offered him a hug and he’s like, ‘No.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ And he’s like ‘Fine,’ and he gave me a hug. Did he stay upstairs or did he saunter back into the basement?

David: He stayed upstairs for a little while before he disappeared again. I don’t know if he was just waiting for coffee or if he actually just wanted to keep seeing us and hear the story.

Annie: It could have been one or the other. I mean, it is Jh. Then we were like, ‘We have to get…’

David: ‘We have to go. We’ve got to get to E before she goes to sleep because with the girls she goes to sleep at like 10.’

Annie: We’re like, ‘Okay, it’s 9:30. Let’s start heading towards the door.’ We start walking towards the door and then the next thing we know it’s 20 after 10 and it’s like, ‘Okay, it’s too late to see E now.’

David: It took us 45 minutes to leave M and B’s place. M just kept on wanting to talk to Annie about everything and just hear the story multiple times and how everything happened.

Annie: To be honest, it was hard to break the conversation as well. We kept the conversation going too.

David: That’s true. We had lots to say and with each person, it was funny. With each subsequent visit we added all of the things that had happened not just the proposal but every event up until we got to their place. So every visit got a little longer.

Annie: Then we get in the car and I’m like, ‘We can’t go visit E but maybe we can see if A is home yet,’ because we hadn’t had a chance to talk to A yet.

David: You texted her first, right?

Annie: I texted her first and she didn’t answer so then I called because I was like, ‘I can’t wait for her anymore.’ We called her and she was like, ‘Yeah, I’m home.’ I’m like, ‘Cool, cool. We’re going to head right over.’ She’s at Grandma’s house so we head back over to Grandmas and when we get there A is sitting on the couch. S’s in the living room too. And A’s like, ‘Let me see your ring.’ I’m like, ‘What? What? Really? No surprise?’

David: ‘Who told you?’

Annie: She’s like, ‘Grandma told me. Actually she told the secret twice.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, when I got in she’s like oh, you just missed them. And I’m like, missed who? She was like, Annie and David. They came by to show off Annie’s engagement ring.’ And A was like, ‘Grandma, you couldn’t let them tell me?’ And Grandma was like, ‘Oh I guess I shouldn’t have done that.’ Then she tells Grandma that we’re coming back over and Grandma goes, ‘Oh, they’re probably coming over to show you the ring.’ And at this point S’s in the room and S’s like, ‘What ring?’ And Grandma’s like, ‘Annie’s engagement ring.’ And A’s like, ‘You did it again.’ And Grandma’s like, ‘Oh yeah. I guess I shouldn’t have done that. So neither one of them was even surprised because Grandma had surprised them. And surprised me as well because I thought it was my turn to tell the story. That was fun.

David: At this point we called it a night, right? At this point we called it a night. We knew we still had so many people to tell. We hadn’t told any of my family. We were trying to make sure everyone understood not to spread the news at that point. There were a few things we wanted to do before that happened. Number one, we didn’t want people finding out from Facebook especially people close to us before we had a chance to tell them. And a lot of our families, both sides, are really heavily involved in Facebook. Another thing was Annie wanted to see how long it would take certain people to notice including some co-workers. And of course I had to tell my entire family. None of them knew yet, none of my family, none of my friends. We had to roll our engagement announcements into a…it became almost a four day event in telling everyone because Annie has such a large family and getting a hold of certain people in my life wasn’t necessarily all the easy either. And then of course the last thing being this big thing with Annie’s work and then of course the reveal on making it Facebook official.

Annie: That night I go to drop David off at his house and drive home. As I’m driving away he’s like, ‘Your water bottle’s here and your coffee cup and everything.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. Hey, is my purse there because I can’t find it.’ I couldn’t find my purse. It wasn’t in my car and it wasn’t in his apartment and I texted M and B and it wasn’t at their house. And I texted A and it wasn’t at their house. I was like, ‘Okay. That’s really weird. We didn’t stop at T and V’s long enough for me to lose my purse there I didn’t think. That kind of sucks.’ I didn’t really sleep that well considering my purse had my money in it, my credit card and my license and my life. So that sucked. The next morning the first thing I did was call T and V’s and see if my purse was there and sure enough it was so that made it a little bit easier. And David was not impressed at the whole losing of my purse thing.

David: But not surprised either.

Annie: No, no. You’re like, ‘Oh, that’s typical Annie.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah. I know. I lose stuff.’ But it was safe. It was all good.

David: Somehow you left it at the one place we stayed at for the shortest period of time.

Annie: Yes. We were there for maybe five minutes and that was long enough for me to lose my purse. And not to even recognize it. It was the first house we’d gone to after the home show and I didn’t notice going into C’s house the first time or M and B’s house or C’s house the second time that my purse wasn’t with me during any of that time. Because my brain was on other things. It was very happy inside my brain. The next morning we told E. And E’s reaction was, ‘Yay. I’m so happy for you. Clean the toilet.’ So then I did.

David: You did. You put gloves on or whatever?

Annie: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I put gloves on, yellow rubber gloves on to clean the toilet after announcing that we were engaged. It was awesome. Then…what did we do?

David: I don’t know what we did the rest of that day. Saturday and Sunday are kind of a blur to me. We knew there were still a lot of people we had to tell. We hadn’t told C or any of his family. We had now pretty much covered your whole family except for C.

Annie: Yeah. We wanted to tell S. We were supposed to get together with S but she…no. That was Sunday.

David: Sunday we were supposed to get together with S.

Annie: So what happened to Saturday?

David: I have no idea. Annie was just so excited and levitating off the ground. I really don’t remember what happened on Saturday.

Annie: Neither do I. That’s really weird. We did live on Saturday. We did stuff.

David: I’m sure we told people.

Annie: Probably.

David: When did I call my family? Saturday or Sunday?

Annie: I don’t know.

David: I think it was Saturday night.

Annie: Was it Saturday night?

David: I think it was Saturday night I started telling my aunt and what not.

Annie: Because Sunday’s when I went to David’s Bridal in the afternoon.

David: Right. So Saturday night I was informing my family of things. I think you informed some people through text messages and through phone calls as well, didn’t you?

Annie: We took the boys to Palladium. That’s right. So we showed up at G’s house to take my Life Skills boys out to Palladium and I’m talking to G, she’s asking what my mom’s doing, and I just brushed the hair out of my face. G was in the kitchen across the house from me and I guess she caught the light off my finger from this gigantic diamond on my hand and in a second, boom. She was in my face. She’s like, ‘What is that? Are you guys engaged?’ She was really happy for us. Then we took the boys to Palladium and that’s when I started telling people through text messaging, a few friends, and taking pictures of the ring and trying to textify that.

David: By the way if anyone has seen a picture of the ring in real life it is way better than any of the pictures so far.

Annie: Oh yes. It is.

David: I joked about it on the picture that was actually posted on Facebook but it’s really hard to capture all the different sides and the way a ring looks in a single picture.

Annie: But it is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Then…

David: That evening I think you texted some people at this point, didn’t you? Or did you call your brother?

Annie: No, I called my brother on Sunday because I called him while I was at David’s Bridal.

David: All right. And then he told you to text other people, right? So Saturday night I told my aunt and asked my cousin Kyle to be one of my groomsmen. I called my mom and my grandma and talked to them. On Sunday using Skype I talked to Mark and asked him to be my best man.

Annie: And he said he’d be honoured. I was there for that. Their conversation was so defend than the conversations I’d had with people.

David: As soon as I got off Skype with Mark the first thing I turned and said to Annie was, ‘Announcing an engagement to a guy is so different than a girl.’ And she goes, ‘How so?’ I’m like, ‘The guys are just like congratulations. The girls are like, ‘How’d it happen?’

Annie: ‘Give me all the details.’ That was one thing I found because I thought it was funny; they’re playing Minecraft and they’re like, ‘Over here is this new machine we’ve got that does this and look how the sheep are doing and the bees. By the way, I asked Annie to marry me. And she said yes. Oh, wow. Congratulations. Yeah. Over here we’ve got these bees and stuff. I’m wondering what’s going to happen; are they going to keep being bees and whatever. Look, I’ve got a laser. Dude, I’ve got another thing to ask you. Do you want to be my best man? Yeah. I’d honored. Cool. Cool.

David: When Mark’s girlfriend found out that Mark didn’t ask about the story she lost it on him I guess because she’s like, ‘What do you mean you don’t know how he did it? What happened? How did it, you didn’t ask?’ And Mark’s like, ‘No. Didn’t even think to.’

Annie: Carly and I had a conversation on Facebook and I think she had one with you too. That was funny. Then on Sunday we were supposed to get together with A. Sorry. Not with A with S.

David: SL.

Annie: But she was sick because she caught a cold from somebody.

David: Maybe me….

Annie: Probably. So instead what did we do?

David: Well, I don’t know what we did with the first half of the day but…

Annie: No, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You had some time all to yourself. Right? Because I went with A to Michael’s and Michael’s was really close to David’s Bridal and all of a sudden I realized that I was engaged and I hadn’t worn a wedding dress so I hadn’t even tried it on.

David: How long had you been engaged at this point. Less than 72 hours?

Annie: Oh yes. Oh, yes. At that point it was less than 40 hours because by the time I got back here and I was sitting with you and we were trying to plan our evening I was like, I have to do something about this.

David: You were so jonesing for a wedding dress.

Annie: I was. So I texted my sisters and I was like, ‘Becky, I’ve been engaged for 42 hours and I have yet to try on a wedding dress.’ And Becky’s like, ‘We could probably fix that but you have to get M and E on page as well because if you can get all three of us together then I’ll go with you to look at wedding dresses.’ So I actually managed to get E, M and Becky available to go with me to try on wedding dresses. We got to David’s Bridal before I took David over to M and B’s house to help with kid watching because Jn had his back problems. When we got there, no. When I was leaving with E and M and Becky, K and L came up to the door. Were they there for Vavoo? Doesn’t matter. They had gone to visit my mom and my mom had actually told them that I was engaged. And I was like, ‘I didn’t even get to share my surprise again.’ then M comes outside and she hears me say this and she goes, ‘I’m so sorry, Annie. I told only one person and it was L.’ And L’s like, ‘You didn’t need to say that because I just told her it was your mom.’ And M’s like, ‘What? My mom told you?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah.’ She actually retained the information for 42 hours in order to be able to share it which is kind of cool. And then I tried on wedding dresses and that’s a story for a different time because you can’t hear any of that stuff right now. I did try on eight dresses though and I don’t think any of them were the right dress yet.

David: But you learned a lot.

Annie: I did. I learned a lot.

David: Since then things have been going well. Everyone that we think needs to know knows and we’re getting ready to plan our entire wedding. And that’s our engagement story.

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[…] For those that are interested, and haven’t yet read through it, Annie and I recorded our engagement story. I then paid to have it transcribed, and finally swapped out most of the names with letters. So the text version is available on Peralty.com – Engagement Story – Text Version […]